Case of double Bucks killing back in court

The case of a Bristol Borough man on death row for gunning down two men at his former workplace in 2008 is back in Bucks County Court to determine whether he is mentally competent for an appeal.

Robert Diamond, 36, has shown paranoid schizophrenic behavior since he has been in state prison following his guilty plea in 2009, forensic psychologist John O'Brien testified Wednesday on his behalf.

"His responses on the surface are reasonable, but his answers to follow-up questions are disorganized and difficult to understand," O'Brien said. "He is not able to engage in rational and reasonable conversations."

The county's forensic psychologist, Timothy Michals, said Diamond was "vague" and "defensive" in his interview, but he showed "sufficient mental capacity" to participate in his appeal.

Diamond stared straight ahead throughout the four-and-half-hour hearing without seeming to look at the two witnesses, the lawyers, or Judge Rea B. Boylan, who had sentenced him to death. His mother, stepfather, a sister, and a few friends sat in the gallery.

Diamond worked as a book sorter and forklift operator at the Simon & Schuster warehouse on Radcliffe Street for five-and-a-half years before he was fired for absenteeism and not getting along with coworkers. Before the firing, he was disciplined for calling a young coworker "boy."

The other employees were jealous of him and harassed him because he was a harder worker, he told Michals.

Out of work and short on rent money, Diamond drove to the warehouse on Aug. 1, 2008, and fatally shot Angel Guadalupe, 46, of Falls Township. Guadalupe, a father of four, had just started the extra job to help pay his mortgage.

Diamond then shot and killed Reginald Woodson, 52, of Willingboro, who had tried to intervene. Diamond shot Woodson in the back as he tried to run back into the warehouse.

At the sentencing, his lawyer argued that Diamond had suffered from mental illness most of his adult life, saying that he had been treated in mental-health facilities twice, and was too sick to be put to death.

But Boylan said the aggravating factors against Diamond - the multiple victims and the danger of death he imposed on other workers that day - outweighed his mental affliction, his lack of a serious prior record, and his guilty plea.

It was the first time that a Bucks County judge, acting independently of a jury, imposed a death sentence since Pennsylvania reinstated capital punishment in 1978.

At the hearing, Boylan asked for Diamond's records from the state Department of Corrections and adjourned the proceeding without ruling.

Diamond's case has been appealed directly to the state Supreme Court - normal for inmates on death row - for numerous issues, Assistant District Attorney Michelle Henry said.